Staying Healthy As A Busy Homeschool Mom

Staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom can be a challenge! It’s easy to put everyone else first and forget to make time for ourselves. So how can you prioritize your own health and find ways to take care of yourself each day?

I’ve adopted lots of little tricks to stay healthy as a homeschool mom. The key to my success has been to focus on taking baby steps. Small changes that I can stick with have helped me focus on staying healthy even on my busiest days.

Do you want ideas for taking care of yourself this homeschool year? Keep reading to discover some of my favorite little ways to prioritize your health this year.

Prioritizing Your Own Health

If we’re being honest, we don’t always prioritize our own health and well-being. Instead, we put everyone else first and push ourselves to the back burner. Caring for our needs becomes something we imagine doing if we have extra time.

My journey toward health was all about baby steps. Taking lots of tiny steps was easier than trying to make drastic changes all at once. I made myself three goals for better physical health” eating better, moving more, and resting.

Prioritizing my physical health has encouraged me to address my mental health too. There are lots of little things we can do to care for our mental health as busy homeschool moms. From mindfulness to mental stimulation and time spent chatting with friends, prioritizing our own health as moms puts us in a better position to care for those we love.

When we’re taking care of ourselves and staying as healthy as possible, we can show up for our families in the ways we really want to without feeling tired or cranky. If you’re tired of watching from the sidelines, it’s time to take some baby steps toward staying healthy.

Staying Healthy As A Busy Homeschool Mom: Tips and Tricks

Staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom can be challenging! If staying healthy feels impossible, try some of my favorite tips and tricks for staying healthy while homeschooling.

Baby Steps

I can’t say enough how important this step is when you’re trying to get and stay healthy as a busy homeschool mom. Making big changes is hard, especially if you try to make several drastic changes all at once. Taking baby steps towards getting and staying healthy turned something that felt incredibly hard to me into something that felt entirely possible.

I started with a few baby-step goals and gradually added more goals and activities to help me stay healthy physically and mentally. Some of my first baby steps included small things that had a big impact like going for a walk each day, swapping my soda for water, and getting more sleep each night. Remember, baby steps add up to big things!

Make Goals

It’s important to make goals for yourself when you’re working toward getting healthy. Big goals are awesome, but make sure you include small goals that feel achievable too. For example, I added a step goal to my staying healthy plan.

The most popular step goal is 10,000 steps, but that didn’t feel possible when I first started getting healthy as a busy homeschool mom. Instead, I set a goal of 5,000 steps which has since increased to 7,500 steps. Another thing I did to help me meet my goals each day was to add them to my phone screen using an app called Habit Bull.

Every morning when I pick up my phone, I see my list of goals. I can check off daily goals as I achieve them and it serves as a quick reminder to keep me focused on staying healthy. Here’s what’s on my list:

Get 7+ hours of sleep
Drink 80+ ounces of water
Eat ~1,800 calories
Eat 140+ grams of protein
Take 7,500 steps
Workout – Move intentionally

Nutrition

Adopting better nutrition is another key to staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom. Keeping track of calories has helped me to make better food choices and control portions. Counting macros has also become a really important part of my journey toward staying healthy.

Counting macros involves breaking down the calories you eat into individual macronutrients. Macronutrients are comprised of carbs, protein, and fats. You can track macros by hand or use an app like My Fitness Pal to keep track on your phone. It’s helping me make healthier choices about what I eat. Here are some of the foods I’m really loving right now:

Greek Yogurt with Fruit
Light Cheese Sticks
Boars Head Lunch Meat
Beef Jerky or Meat Sticks
Veggies with Yogurt based Dips
Pretzels with Hummus
Chicken Salad
Taco Salad

Sometimes, when I am on the go, feeling lazy, or craving something sweet I like to have things that will help me hit my goals while still making my life easy or hitting that sweet spot. That’s when I like to have a these prepackaged things on hand to ensure I make choices that help my goals versus hurting them. And yes, I love these all so much that I buy them in bulk:

I also get help from my friend Kristen at KrisCasFit who does 1:1 coaching. She helps me stay accountable on my journey. Every 8 weeks, Kristen makes a new workout plan for me to help me keep meeting my goals. Finding that partner to help you stay accountable is a really important part of staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom. That accountability can come from a habit tracker, a friend, a spouse, or a coach.

Mental Health

Caring for my mental health has also been a huge part of my journey toward getting and staying healthy. It’s easy for us to put everyone else first and burn the candle at both ends as busy homeschool moms. Making time for realistic self-care is definitely an important piece of the puzzle that I’ve been working on lately.

Setting Boundaries

Guarding my time is one trick to staying healthy as a homeschool mom that truly works for me. Learning to say no to things that would overwhelm me was really hard to do at first. There are so many amazing homeschool field trip opportunities and clubs to participate in that it’s easy to get involved with more than we can realistically manage.

It’s easy to overschedule, but we have to resist the urge and guard our time if we want to stay healthy as busy homeschool moms. Guarding my time doesn’t always mean saying no. Sometimes it just means prioritizing the things that matter most to me and choosing our own goals first by setting up a routine that helps me take care of myself.

Reading Nonfiction

Another aspect of staying healthy that I’ve embraced is to read books just for me. Choosing nonfiction books to read by myself gives me the opportunity to feed my mind.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in our homeschool reading list and books we read aloud, but what about books just for us? Here’s what I’m reading lately that’s helping me stay mentally healthy as a busy homeschool mom:

Journaling

There are many mental health benefits to journaling. Keeping a journal can help us put our fears, concerns, and frustrations into words in a safe space. Journaling helps us see patterns and potential triggers as we work toward staying healthy.

Journaling as a homeschool mom is also a wonderful place to begin developing positive self-talk and meditation. Getting started with a journal felt really challenging to me though. The idea of filling a blank page with my thoughts was something I just didn’t have time for as a busy homeschool mom.

Then, I bought The Five Year Journal from Peter Pauper Press. You can fill in these journaling lines in just a couple of minutes! It’s organized into one line a day, rather than a whole page.

I’m using my journal to write down one thing I’m grateful for each night before bed. Keeping a gratitude journal like this one helps me to maintain a positive mood and be more optimistic about the future.

Move Your Body

Making a commitment to move my body every day has helped tremendously as I work toward staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom. Daily workouts include things like taking a walk together as a family as well as other activities for fitness and fun. It’s also a great way to help myself meet that daily step goal.

I try to do a cardio workout at least once or twice a week too. Cardio should be fun! There are so many ways to get in cardio that are also a lot of fun, so try adding something you enjoy that also counts as cardio.

Walking on an incline like hiking or walking on the treadmill at an incline is one way you can have fun adding cardio to your week. I also really love rucking which is basically walking with weight on your back. Another thing I like doing when it is super hot outside are Grow With Jo YouTube workouts. Here are a few other fun ways to get in some cardio this week:

Walking
Swimming
Rebounding
Dancing

Strength training is another way I’m “moving my body” that I didn’t think I would enjoy. Turns out, it’s awesome! There’s something truly empowering about being able to lift very heavy weights yourself. Strength training has truly helped me meet my goals and boosted my confidence in all kinds of ways.

Here are some of my favorite resources to have on hand for moving my body:

Schedule It

Finally, I want to encourage you to just do it. Schedule time to exercise, time for yourself, and time for your health the way you would schedule an important meeting. We’re busy, so we have to make the time and commit to prioritizing ourselves as busy moms.

When you make the time, the benefits will amaze you. Making time to stay healthy has had tremendous benefits for me that don’t have anything to do with a number on a scale.

Getting healthy puts me in a better mood. When I’m not cranky, I’m easier to be around and I get more done. I’ve got more energy! It feels like there’s more time in my day to do the things I really want to do because I’ve got the energy and the good mood to tackle them.

The best part is that I’m not on the sidelines anymore. I can actively participate with my family instead of just watching while everyone else does the things I didn’t feel capable of before.

More Ideas For Taking Care Of Yourself

There are so many little ways we can take care of ourselves this year. Even on my busiest days, some of these ideas really help me grab a few minutes for myself. Discover my secrets and make plans to stay healthy as a busy homeschool mom this year.

Choose Family Activities

Sometimes choosing fitness activities for the whole family can be a great way to get started on the path toward making more healthy choices. If everyone is involved, it can be easier to get started and stay motivated.

There are all kinds of ways you can get the whole family involved in fitness. Indoor and outdoor family activities make it easy to build connections and stay healthy together.

For example, we made a commitment to run a 5k as a family once a month. Other fun family fitness activity ideas include kayaking, nature walks, and playing Pokemon GO together.

Learning Lunches

Learning lunches save the day when we’re having a difficult time for whatever reason. These little midday breaks give us both some much needed time apart. Want to learn more about how this homeschool mom hack works?

Discover how to find time for yourself when you’re homeschooling an only child. These ideas include learning lunches, strewing tips, and more options for self-care.

Go With the Flow

One of the best ways to take care of ourselves as busy homeschool moms is to go with the flow. We homeschool year-round and I’ve discovered it’s really important to slow down during busy seasons like the holidays or that slow period in early January. Going with the flow can mean lots of things.

Planning holiday-themed unit studies can be a great way to take advantage of the seasons rather than fighting an uphill battle against holiday anticipation. Sometimes going with the flow means celebrating “not back to school” when everyone else is posting their first day of school pictures. Other times going with the flow is about slowing down and taking a step back to learn with a book and a game a day.

Realistic Self Care

Realistic self-care makes staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom so much easier. If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this mission to stay healthy, it’s that there are realistic options for taking care of myself and it’s worth it to make that time for myself and my health.

As busy moms, it’s tempting to burn the candle at both ends. However, making time to care for ourselves, even in small ways, is so important. It can even be a catalyst for teaching our children how to care for themselves too and that’s a worthwhile lesson indeed.

How are you staying healthy as a busy homeschool mom this year? What little tips and tricks for self-care have you discovered? Share your favorite ways to stay healthy in the comments. I can’t wait to read them and try a few of your favorite self-care tips too!